I believe I ruined my master file table. Help?

lyleferguson

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Feb 25, 2014
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I have a Windows 8.1 laptop with multiple partitions; namely C: for the installation and D: for files, music, programs, etc. My D: drive was starting to get full and I wanted to apply a large chunk of unallocated space to it. No problem under normal circumstances, however the unallocated disk space was located before the D: disk space. I decided to use a third party partition manager, namely Amoei Partition Manager, to accomplish this. Big mistake.

Needless to say, my Windows installation is messed up. It boots, but not much works. So Ive been reading up on solutions using an Ubuntu installation that I have on the same hard drive. I found this forum post that made me think there is some way to recover my personal files since the disk isnt actually damaged. But Im nervous about doing anything alone after making such a mess already.

Could someone help me out with my problem? Also, if there is any other information that may help please let me know and I'll do my best to obtain it!
 
Hey there, lyleferguson!

I'd first run a diagnostics utility on the drive, making sure there are no bad sectors or any other damage on it.
Then you could use the suggested solution from the thread you shared. Running chkdsk /r should recover readable data from the drive.
If those don't work, I'd recommend to take a look at this thread: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/291895-32-best-data-recovery-software
You can also use the Ubuntu Live CD ( http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/use-ubuntu-live-cd-to-backup-files-from-your-dead-windows-computer/ )
Hopefully you will be able to retrieve your files. Once you do, delete all the partitions on the drive and re-format it.
Re-installing of Windows afterwards is a must, seems like your whole OS is pretty messed up indeed.

Keep me posted! :)
SuperSoph_WD